"What are we waiting for?" she inquired, breaking the silence that hung in the air after she told Luke a bit about her life.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, jolted from his thoughts. "We are waiting for Ellise to call."

I got lost in my story." She chuckled, shaking her head. "Tell me what happened."

He twisted his body to face Jess, ready to tell her everything that had happened.

"This morning, we don't have enough flour in the pantry to make waffles, so I called the concierge to send some. It was delivered with this beautiful flower arrangement with a card dripping with blood." he watched Jess' expression but her face remained neutral as she listened to his story.

"The hotel staff said it was Samara and Briare, but when I called Ellise, she said she trusted those two. And asked them to get the innocent bouquet of flowers and do some investigation. Ellise instructed me to go on with my day and not tell you anything...yet." he added the last word to avoid making her angry, but Jess still has an unreadable expression on his face.

"When you went for a walk on your own, I followed you because I got scared that someone would get to you and you were defenseless since you had no idea of the threat. And then, while I was sitting there watching your emo ass, Ellise called and told me to stay inside the house and wait for her call."

"That's it?" she asked with a crease between her brows.

"What do you mean, that's it? Did you hear what I have just said? There is a threat to your life!"

"Yep, a card with blood on it."

"Wh-what --" he stood up from the sofa, throwing his arms in the air.

"Luke, did you read what's in the card?"

"No. And Ellise told me it was a good thing. Why? Should I have read it?"

"It's a good thing for the investigation because you didn't contaminate the evidence, but, those people are mostly not stupid. I don't think they would get anything from the card."

"Ugh! You are making me so frustrated with how you are acting right now!" he said, stomping his foot like a child about to throw a tantrum.

"Luke, I understand your frustration, but me panicking is the last thing you need right now. And frankly, since you didn't open the card and had no idea what's written on it, we don't have an idea on what threat we are facing -- or was it a threat or just a prank."

"Prank?! Who has the time in their hands to send such a prank?" his voice went an octave higher.

While Jess went to the kitchen and opened a bottle of wine, "A glass?"

"How could you think of drinking wine with the situation at hand?" He widened his eyes in disapproval. "Give me a glass!" he snarled.

She scoffed and took the newly open bottle of wine and two wine glasses back to the receiving area.

She put down the wine glasses and poured the wine. "There is nothing we can do but wait. Panicking without knowing why is pointless."

He got his glass of wine, leaned back on the couch backrest, and said, "I hate that you are right!"

They sipped their wine in silence.

Jess stares at the balcony with a sheer white curtain dancing in the breeze from the sliding door that was left open when they went to Noah's villa to watch a movie.

She stared at the sheer curtain as if it were mesmerizing when a thought clicked in her brain.

"The accident, yesterday...did Ellise say something about it?" she asked as her gaze remained fixed on the dancing curtain.

"She said accidents tend to happen around the young miss, but not to assume anything until the matter was thoroughly investigated."

"Was Noah aware of it?"

"Uhm, Ellise said, the first thing Noah did when the accident happened was to conduct an investigation."

"Hmm," she cocked her head to the side with what she heard. "Must be the reason why they were in a hurry to head back home."

"Noah?"

"Yes, this morning he told me that they are flying home and asked me if I would like to join them."

"And --

"Of course, I declined," she clicked her tongue before downing her glass of wine.

"Go easy on the wine. I want you sober when Ellise calls. I don't know how to handle this kind of crap. I only know how to handle toxic exes."

She chuckled softly when Luke spilled his drink because his phone rang at that exact moment.

"Cast the call on the TV screen."

"Oh- okay." he fumbled on the TV remote and his smartphone.

She felt a bit of guilt that Luke got involved with the shit that is quite common in her life. She heaved a big sigh. She had a few years of quiet life when she chose to study in the US. She didn't expect this kind of crap again.

She wasn't really worried except with the thought that Lucille has been subjected to these traumatizing 'accidents' in her young life, and also she wanted to know if her involvement in this was because of Noah.

She shifted her attention when Ellise's face was projected on the TV screen.

"Fancy seeing you enjoying a good glass of wine," she scoffed.

"Well, nice of you to be on top of the current situation."

"You are in my resort. This is just the normal drill."

Her eyes rolled at the back of her head at the way Ellise brushed aside the severity of the situation.

When she sees her face on the screen, she immediately knows that the threat that Luke described isn't something that she should take as a simple prank.

"Tell me what we are dealing with this time," she bent forward to the coffee table to pour herself another glass of wine.

This is going to take a while she thought the moment she saw Ellise's expression.